Auto Train - Operations

Operations

The train operates every day. At 11:30 am, the station gates are opened to allow the passengers for the next trip into the vehicle staging area. Here, the vehicles are assigned their number, which is affixed to the driver's door magnetically. The vehicle is typically video surveyed to document any preexisting dents and other damage, in the event a damage claim is later filed. The passengers leave their vehicles here and take their carry-on bags with them into the station to await boarding. The vehicles are then staged near the autorack ramps by size and length for optimal loading order, and are then loaded onto the autoracks. In the case of motorcycles, the owner assists with tying their bikes down to a dedicated motorcycle carrier which is then loaded into the autorack. Passengers do not have access to their vehicles during the trip.

Boarding begins at 2:30 pm. At 3 pm, a wine and cheese tasting is offered in the lounge cars.

The last vehicles and passengers are accepted at 3 pm, at which time the autoracks are closed and coupled together, the passenger cars are coupled together in the case of Sanford departures, and the autoracks are coupled to the rear of the consist. At 4 pm, the locomotive engineer is given clearance to occupy the main line, and the train departs the station to begin its run.

There are 2 or 3 dinner seatings, depending on how full the train is. Dinner (included in the ticket price) is served in the dining cars at 5, 7, and when there is a third seating, 9 pm. Each seating is announced over the intercoms in each car, and in each sleeping compartment. After the first dinner seating, a recent movie is shown on televisions in the lounge cars, which is repeated later in the evening. After midnight, the train arrives in Florence, South Carolina, where it stops briefly to be refueled and re-watered. A crew change also occurs here for the locomotive.

At 6 am, the dining car crew serves breakfast. No announcement is made for this seating until 7 am, however. Breakfast is served until 8 am.

As the train approaches the destination station, announcements are made concerning arrival time updates, and a general call for the passengers to gather up their personal belongings. At 9:30 am the train arrives in the destination station. Passengers may not immediately detrain at this point, as the autoracks are first decoupled from the consist, and in the case of the Sanford station, the passenger cars are split into 2 sections to fit on Sanford's shorter platforms. At this point the passengers are then allowed to detrain and move to the auto claim area. Cleaning crews move into the train once all passengers are off, and the train is re-supplied with that day's food and water.

The autoracks are further split into 4–6 sections and each section is lined up with a loading ramp (see picture). The doors between each are opened, and connecting ramps are lowered to allow vehicles to move between cars. At this point vehicles begin to roll off the autoracks and around to the claim area, where they are identified and announced by a vehicle number that was attached to the vehicle at the origin station. Vehicles are not unloaded in the same order they were loaded the previous day. It normally takes 2 hours to unload all vehicles from a full train.